At my husband’s suggestion, I have been reading a great book called “Love Does” by Bob Goff. It’s an entertaining book about a guy who has lived a pretty extravagant life–living it to the extreme– and the lessons his adventures have taught him. I have read it and laughed out loud, and I have read it with my jaw dropped open because I think the guy is just crazy…..but he lives with the motto that love doesn’t sit around talking about what it will do, love just does.
I completed a great chapter this week during lunch. (This is where I get most of my reading done–I put food in front of the children, they put it in their mouths, which produces a somewhat silent atmosphere and I read. It’s the only time I have to sit long enough to read. This is probably the reason all my books are smeared with mustard or peanut butter.) Anyway, he wrote about the events after Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus and killed himself. The disciples needed to add another man to replace Judas, and they came up with two guys–Matthias and Justus. They cast lots and Matthias won, and as Bob Goff states it, “He got the nod, and has been in every stained glass window ever since.” He got the “cape.” The distinguishing, important recognition of “the chosen.” And Justus……we never hear about him again. Goff writes:
The thing is, “Justus” sounds a lot to me like “just-us.” God’s plans are full of “just-us” kinds of people. I would say the majority of us are just-us people, folks who don’t get a cape or a stained glass window. We get the opportunity to do what God wants us to do with a lot fanfare…..It’s people like us who can be secretly incredible and get the most done. That’s the way Jesus’ reverse economy works.
You see the thing is, I am a “just-us” kind of person. I’ve noticed with blogging/Facebook ect., that we can appear to be “cape” people—slant our lives to look like we have it all together, that we have perfect children and husbands and well-put-together lives. It gives people a false impression that we live life with a cape–somehow doing life better than they are. I despise this about social media, and yet I buy into it. I need to confess to you….
I am a sinner.
I don’t want to give you the impression that my life is perfect, and that my marriage is effortless, and that my children obey because they just love doing it, or that we are adopting because God has somehow granted us this “larger mission” than He’s given others. Not at all. My life is chaotic, and Andy and I don’t always have the same ideas for how to do things, and my kids test my patience every single day, and there are nights I fall asleep thinking, “What am I doing?!”
But I also find in those moments that God’s still small voice whispers, “You are doing life. This is the place that I have called you to and it is hard AND beautiful. Don’t worry that your calling isn’t the same as others, just serve where I have placed YOU. Seek Me sinner, and find mercy.”
And I love that about Jesus that He knows me for more than my latest Facebook status. He sees my filthy heart, and tells me it’s okay, He just wants me to serve Him where I am and live the life He has set me in– without a cape.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
fiveandwaiting.wordpress.com 
I loved this!